Re: "Alexa, is there a God?

She believes that her god makes my garden bloom with flowers.

Many years and jobs ago one of our junior programmers was a born again Christian, but management had to tell him to tone it down a bit because everyone round him got sick of him thanking God by praying out loud every time his code compiled. He wasn't that bad a programmer.

Re: Big Pharma

the problem is that it is horrendously expensive to develop a new drug.

Whereas I totally agree with you about this (I have a niece in the business), I'd be far more sympathetic to Big Pharma if they didn't spend 2/3rds of their budget on advertising, mainly about drugs for first world problems like restless legs and hair loss.

Jeremy Clarkson … can technically call himself Doctor as a University has awarded him a doctorate, ergo he is a Doctor

He was awarded an honorary doctorate, and you're not supposed to use the title "Doctor" with one of those, only an earned doctorate. However, this is the UK rather than Germany so there are no laws about what titles you can or can't use (except for fraudulent purposes). Hence "Doctor" Liam Fox, even though the man has no earned doctorate and hasn't been a practising medic for decades. I do wish the media would either use the correct Mister or put Doctor in quotes to show Fox up as a poseur.

Re: When I was a lad...

The jokes in Blazing Saddles got stale after the first week,

Back in the 90s Channel 4 used to broadcast some films with subtitles for the deaf, one of which was Blazing Saddles. The bean eating scene started off with short onomatopoeic captions on one line which got longer and longer, eventually taking two entire lines, and ended around half way through the scene with a final caption that read "The farting continues …". That's stuck in my memory longer than the actual jokes in the script.

ESA is not an EU organisation

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, whereas the EU is supranational. The two institutions have indeed different ranges of competences, different Member States and are governed by different rules and procedures.

Therefore ESA membership has sod all to do with whether or not we're in the EU.

Full time drivers doze off too

I've had full time taxi drivers pick me up from an airport and then start microsleeping while driving on the motorway before now. It doesn't matter whether it's a primary or secondary job, you simply shouldn't be driving when tired. We need cars that detect doziness and apps that check reaction times.

Re: EU's metrification?

OTOH, try doing construction work using the metric system.

Easy peasy, if you think about it. Just use the metric foot of 300 mm and it can be divided 16 ways rather than the piddling 4 ways that twelve can be divided. Also 2x4 is only 2x4 when rough cut. After planing to a smooth surface it's smaller (which caught me out as a teenager) so 50x100 works.